Our History

Origins of GWC-UAW

In January 2014, graduate student workers at Columbia started talking about unionizing—to have a say in decisions that affect our work at the university and to improve the conditions of our labor. A few months earlier, after eight years of sustained organizing, grad workers at New York University (NYU) had finally won back recognition of their union, Graduate Student Organizing Committee-UAW (GSOC-UAW), and we were excited and energized by their victory. What started as informal conversations among peers within our own departments began to coalesce into a movement when we realized that our colleagues across campus were having similar conversations. Grad student workers reached out to UAW representatives, who had been involved with past organizing campaigns at Columbia and the current campaign at NYU, as well as at other universities across the US. We held an open meeting, and grad workers from numerous departments attended.

We soon discovered that grassroots support for unionization ran much deeper and wider. We started having face-to-face conversations across the Morningside and Medical campuses, and word spread quickly: by May we held a packed town-hall-style meeting, with grad workers from more than 30 departments across the sciences, medical campus, humanities, and social sciences in attendance. Sustained organizing continued through the summer. By the end of June, we had active participants in virtually every department at Columbia. In the dead of July, we held another packed town hall, this time at the Medical Center campus.

Majority of RAs and TAs Sign Up for GWC-UAW

In the fall of 2014, GWC-UAW held a card drive in order to demonstrate that a majority of graduate student workers favored unionization. Over 1700 graduate workers signed cards by Thanksgiving, indicating their support for GWC-UAW. These workers came from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS); Mailman School of Public Health; the Columbia University Medical Center; the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; the School for Social Work; the Graduate School for Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP); the Business School; the School of Journalism; the School of Professional Studies; the Law School; the School of the Arts; and the School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA).

On August 23, 2016, the Board issued a historic decision overturning Brown and restoring our statutory right to collective bargaining. This decision not only enables RAs and TAs at Columbia to have an election on unionization as early as Fall 2016, but also sets precedent for RAs and TAs at private universities across the United States to form unions and engage in collective bargaining. We expect the NLRB to hold an election during Fall 2016. If a majority of participating RAs and TAs vote “yes” in that election, Columbia would have a legal obligation to bargain with GWC-UAW.

“Columbia can do better!” Organizing for and Winning Improvements on Campus

Throughout 2015 and 2016, as we waged our legal battle at the NLRB to restore union rights, GWC-UAW remained active on the ground and dedicated to continuing the grassroots organizing that has made our campaign so successful thus far. In the process, GWC-UAW has launched a number of initiatives and worked alongside other organizations, such as the Graduate Student Advisory Council (GSAC), to help win improvements to pay, fee waivers and family benefits.

Finally, GWC-UAW has helped show that Columbia can, and does, do better when we join together across campus. Working alongside efforts by GSAC and other student groups, GWC-UAW organizing helped move Columbia to promise four years of pay increases, enhance family benefits and expand them to more programs, and win more years of funding in programs that lagged behind the best practices across campus.

More than 3,000 RAs and TAs have now signed cards and weighed in on initial bargaining surveys as we approach our NLRB election. The vigorous participation and activism across campus has built a solid foundation to win our election with a strong “yes” vote so that we have momentum to bargain improvements in a strong first contract. GWC-UAW has held several town halls since early Fall 2016, as well as a major forum on how unionization can enhance the ability to take on sexual harassment. We will continue to hold such events in order to make sure all RAs and TAs have the opportunity to ask questions about unionization, get involved and meet their colleagues from across the university.

A Brief History of Graduate Student Organizing in NYC

1998 Grad student workers at NYU start organizing and a majority chooses to be represented by GSOC-UAW Local 2110.

2000 GSOC-UAW wins a landmark National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling, affirming that grad student workers have bargaining rights, and a majority vote for GSOC/UAW as a union.

2002 Grad student workers at NYU ratify their first contract, including a 38% increase to minimum stipends, workload protection, and paid health care for the first time, among other improvements

Teaching and Research Assistants organized in 2001-2. Their election ballots were later destroyed after a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board.

2001-2002 Grad student workers at Brown, Tufts, Penn, and Columbia organize and have elections run by the regional NLRB. However, their ballots are impounded because universities—in a coordinated anti-union strategy—appeal regional labor board decisions to the NLRB.

2004 The NLRB, comprising new appointments following a change in administration, rules on the Brown University case, overturning the original NYU decision and stripping grad student workers, from private universities, of their right to collective bargaining. All four cases are dismissed and all ballots destroyed.

2005 When the first GSOC/UAW contract expires, NYU uses the Brown decision to withdraw recognition of the union and refuses to bargain a second contract.

2013 After eight years of sustained organizing, majority support, and major political and community pressure, NYU grad student workers convince the NYU administration to agree to a fair election in which 98.4% of grad student workers vote in favor of unionization.

On December 12, 2014, based on majority support from RAs and TAs, GWC-UAW at Columbia SENS-UAW at The New School file petitions with the NLRB to overturn Brown and restore the right to collective bargaining.

2015 The regional NLRB holds hearings on the Columbia and The New School cases.